Build Background

• Make a word web with students. Write the word farm in the center. Ask students to tell you the different kinds of farms they know about, things they have seen on a farm, or things they think belong on a farm.
• Continue the discussion by asking students if they think there might be any other types of farms.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Make, Revise, Confirm Predictions

• Tell students that a fun way to read that helps them understand and remember what they read in a book is to predict, or make guesses, about what they will find in the book.
• Show students the front and back covers of the book. Ask them to read the title. Ask students what they think this book will be about.
• Think aloud: I can make a prediction, or guess, about what I think this book is about by looking at the title and the front and back covers. On the front cover I see the kind of farm I know about. It's one that cows live on. But the title of the book says "All Kinds of Farms," so that makes me think there will be some other kinds. When I look at the back cover of the book, I see a farmhouse and a field of flowers. This makes me think that I will read about a farm that grows flowers. I wonder why people grow flowers on a farm? I think maybe we might read about a horse farm. I will write my ideas on the board.
• Encourage students to make predictions about what kinds of farms they think they will read about in the book. Record their predictions on the board.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information that is written on the page (title of book, author's name). Ask them to predict what kind of farm is shown in the picture.
• Show students the table of contents. Explain that there are 2 chapters in the book. Read the chapter titles and tell students that the number that follows each one tells the page number on which the chapter begins. Have students put their finger on the chapter title they think might tell about cows. Have them put their finger on the chapter title they think might tell about corn. Ask students to predict what animals might live on farms and what things might grow on farms. Have students turn to the page where the first chapter begins.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• Go through each page of the book with the students. Talk about the illustrations and use the vocabulary and language patterns they will encounter in the text. For example, ask students what they think comes from cows and where they think wool comes from. Ask students to talk about what they see in each picture and revise or confirm the predictions written on the board as they get new information through the pictures. Name any items students don't know. Provide opportunities for students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.
• Model word-attack strategies by pointing to an object in the picture. For example, ask the students to point to the picture of the glass of milk on page 4. Ask the students to say the word and tell what sound they hear at the beginning. Ask the students to find the word on pages 4 and 5 and explain how they know that the word is milk. Ask students to look at the picture and decide if the word milk makes sense.
• Repeat with other vocabulary words if necessary. Remind students to look at the beginning and ending sounds in words and/or the parts within words that they recognize to help them sound out the words.
• For additional teaching tips on reading and word-attack strategies, click here.
• For tips on teaching high-frequency words, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Tell students to read the book to find out if their predictions about kinds of farms are correct.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give students their books and a sticky note. Tell them to put the sticky note on page 7 and to read to the end of the page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students whether their predictions were confirmed from their reading. Model confirming or revising predictions: I predicted that milk comes from cows and the book tells me this. I predicted that the book would tell me that we get wool from sheep. I was right. I learned that we make clothes from wool. I predict that in the next part of the book I will learn how we use different things that grow on farms.
• Continue the discussion by asking students to tell what we use milk for. Have them look at the pictures of cheese and milk. Ask them to put their fingers on the word that matches the picture name in the sentence below the picture of milk; do the same with cheese. Ask them to find the sentence that tells where wool comes from. Ask students to tell the kind of farm that has eggs (chicken). Ask them to find the sentence that tells when people eat eggs. Ask if they think eggs can be eaten at any other time.

    Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Word Attack: Ask students what words were difficult for them. Ask how they figured out the words. Reinforce any strategies used, such as sounding out the word and verifying by context and/or picture clues. For example, look at page 6.
• Ask how they know this word is clothes. Ask what sound is at the beginning of the word, and what sound is at the end. Ask what picture clues helped them figure out the word. Ask if the word clothes fits in the sentence.
• Comprehension: Reinforce that making a guess about what they will find in a book helps them understand and remember what they have read. Model the strategy: I thought I might read about a horse farm and a flower farm. I didn't read about horses, but I did learn about a sunflower farm. Making guesses about what was in the book, and then finding out I was right, or that I needed to change my guesses helped me think about what I was reading.

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Classify information

• Introduce and model: Have students look at the table of contents. Tell them that each chapter is about a different group of things found on farms. Explain that the first chapter is about things that live on farms. Write Things that live on farms on the board. Ask them to tell some of the things they read about. Record their responses.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the title of the second chapter. Ask them to tell what this chapter is about. Write Things that grow on farms on the board. Have them tell some of the things they read about that grow on farms.
• Independent Practice: Introduce and explain how to complete the classification worksheet. Discuss their responses.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of the book to draw a picture of themselves on their favorite type of farm. Have them share with the group and explain why they chose that kind of farm.

Phonemic Awareness: R-blends

• Tell students that you are going to say a word slowly by stretching out the sounds: /g/ /rrr/ /ooo/ Stretch the sounds except for the /g/. Tell students that you are going to blend the sounds together to say the word: grow. Repeat one more time, having students listen carefully.
• Explain that you will say the sounds of some words and that you want them to blend the sounds together to say the words. Say each sound for each word one at a time, slowly and distinctly and have students blend them together to tell you the word: /b/ /r/ /i/ /k/ (brick); /k/ /r/ /a/ /b/ (crab); /d/ /r/ /a/ /n/ (drain); /t/ /r/ /a/ /p/ (trap); /p/ /r/ /e/ /s/ (press); /f/ /r/ /e/ (free).

• Write the following blends in a row along the board: br, cr, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr. Explain that these are all r-family blends. The letter r blends with another letter (consonant). Say each blend and have students repeat them with you.
• Write the word trip on the board. Ask students which r-family blend they see at the beginning of the word. Have a student come up and circle the blend.
• Have students sound out the word with you while you run your hand under the letters. Repeat the words brim, crib, drip, frill, grass, and prop.
• Have students work with a partner to find words with r-family blends in the book. Words they will find are: drink, from, fruit, grows, bread.
• Explain the r-blends worksheet, go over the example provided, and instruct students to complete the worksheet. When completed, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Nouns

• Review or explain that there are special words that tell the names of people, places, and things. Ask students to tell the names of the animals that live on farms. Have them tell the names of things that come from animals that live on farms. Ask students to tell the names of things that grow on farms. Have them tell the names of the things that come from plants that grow on farms. Reinforce that each word is a naming word.

Have students go through the book and circle each naming word.

Vocabulary: Content Vocabulary

• Ask students what all of the words in the book were about (farms and what lives and grows on them). Review the types of things that live and grow on farms. Review what each farm produces. Provide opportunities for students to talk about difficult words such as leather, clothes, and sugarcane. Ask students what sound each begins with. Explain that the word sugarcane is made by putting two words together. Have students look at page 10. Have them put their finger on the word sugarcane. Then have them find the word sugar. Provide opportunities for students to say the new vocabulary words, talk about their meanings, and use the words in sentences.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.
• Give students their worksheets to take home. They can complete them with the help of their parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing and Art Connection

• Write the sentences _______ live on farms. and ______ grow on farms. Ask students to choose one of the sentences to write and fill in the blank with what they would like to have live or grow on a farm. Tell them to think of a reason why they choose the animal or plant. Tell the students to illustrate their sentences. Display on a bulletin board titled "Our Farms."

Science Connection

• Have a local farmer or someone from the agricultural school at a nearby university talk to the students about different types of farms. Have him or her tell how livestock is handled and how crops are grown. Then provide paper cups, seeds, soil, and water for students to plant a sunflower seed. Have students draw pictures of their plants on each day of growth and label as Day 1, Day 2, etc.

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make logical predictions based on available text information and then revise or confirm predictions as they read the book
• correctly list things that grow on farms in one column and things that live on farms in another column
• orally blend sounds to make words
• recognize r-family blends, read simple words with the blends, and find words in the book that contain the blends
• recognize that nouns name things and correctly find the nouns used in the book
• use the farm vocabulary words in meaningful oral sentences

Comprehension Checks